Queens College Rain Garden

In May, Queens College secured $580,000 from New York City’s Department of Environmental Protection for the construction of an additional rain garden on campus, through the DEP’s Green Infrastructure Grant program. The rain garden, to be built in the college’s Dining Hall Plaza, will replace 18,000sqft of impervious surface with trees, planting beds and permeable pavers to hold and divert over a million gallons of stormwater each year.

The DEP’s awarded a total of $4.7million to 11 projects in 2013, all of which reduce the amount of water flowing into the sewage system during heavy rains, in turn helping to prevent flooding and coastal erosion in the New York City area. Queens College was also one of two CUNY colleges to secure funding from the same grant in 2011. Queens College secured $386,000 for another rain garden project, while City College was part of a joint proposal to create a community garden and research project in Brooklyn.